Thursday, August 11th 2022

It’s a 7:00 a.m. start and I need to get going because I think Lena is coming today to help clean up a bit. The floors definitely need a wipe and a sweep. But this also means I have to get moving. If the sweeping doesn’t get done first, it’s a bit of a waste. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that if I want the job done right, and I do, I have to make sure that the job gets done right and that means prep work.

My only complaint is that I spiced up my dinner as much as humanly possible last night. I just had a huge desire for flavor so I put an entire super hot chili in the veggie mix and probably added too much salt. I’m sure I didn’t need to do this but I really wanted it. Call it covid tongue. Or maybe I just wanted a little thrill in my life. Usually my food is flavorful enough. Last night I just wanted a little more. I wanted to truly feel it. This morning, I truly feel it.

I’m sure there is more to talk about but I’ve got to go. I don’t have time to sit and think today or at least right now. Too much to do. Okay, up up up!

***

Okay, it’s 20 minutes to 9:00 and pretty much everything is done already. I am not completely convinced that I am finished for the day. This is especially true if I consider tomorrow to be the end of the week and I want everything to be nice and easy for my day off. It truly seems that most of my life is a day off right now. I am both complaining and not complaining about that.

At the moment I am pre-boiling some beans. Out of laziness, I tend to go to lentils more often than full beans simply because you don’t need to soak them or pre boil them. You can just throw them in and within a short period of time they are ready. The same is true for chickpeas. I don’t know much about the nutrition profile but I guess it would be worth checking out.

What is the nutritional difference between lentils and beans?

Here’s the breakdown on nutrients: Lentils are a good source of B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. They’re a great source of polyphenols, which have potential cancer-cell inhibiting effects. Beans have lots of nutrients, a good amount of zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, and vitamins B1, B6, E, and K.

Lentils overall have more nutrients than the other beans I compared them to above. This includes the more important nutrients like iron and zinc that many people on plant-based diets (particularly vegans) are deficient in. While it’s not a huge margin in most cases, lentils give you the most vitamins and minerals.

I’ll be honest with you that I am a bit surprised by this. My thinking was that beans would be more nutritious. I also would have been happier with this going the other way because it is much easier for me to grow beans. I learned that lesson this year to the extreme. There is no way to hand harvest lentils satisfactorily. I mean you can, but it is so much effort for so little reward that I can’t believe that it’s worth it. Chickpeas will be my limit in the future.

I think beans are the center of a plant-based diet. I think you get the most protein from eating beans and therefore you feel the most solid. When you eat beans with your meals, you feel that you’ve eaten something and that you are not deficient anywhere.

Greens are important. Greens are extremely important as are vegetables in general. I guess vegetables are the bulk of what we eat. I don’t think you can get by on only eating beans. In the springtime, I am absolutely insane to have some fresh greens. And all during the summer whenever I cook something, there has to be some fresh greenery in there. I don’t think frozen vegetables are an inadequate substitute. I can live off of cabbage in the winter, both simply refrigerated and preserved very easily. But greens are vitally important.

As far as grains go, I would rank them somewhat lower as a necessity of life. I would rank seeds and nuts higher than grains. This is not true for all grains. I really appreciate having some bread at least once a week. When I have it I want more but if we’re talking about pure nutrition, it’s nice to have some flour. I also really like buckwheat very much. It is fast and very tasty. Pearled barley is also good and I guess I appreciate quinoa quite a bit when it’s available. It’s pretty expensive but you feel the energy. But I would not put grains so highly on the list of what is important.

As for fruit, apples can stay for a really long time. I don’t really like preserved fruit very much. I don’t like the sugar added. I don’t have that much of a sweet tooth for it. Seasonally, like for example exactly right now, I can feast on fruits. And when the center of the summer comes and berries appear, I can eat them by the handful and be happy and grateful.

Actually, I am pretty happy with dried fruits too in the winter time. Dried fruit and nuts are lovely to have and in an absolute pinch, they are probably the best energy food in the world as a combination. They are certainly the best bicycle food I have ever had.

So if I have to rank foods as to their absolute importance I would say Greens and beans are number one. For the human body to work really well, we start with Greens and beans. Next down the line I would go with fruit and nuts. I would include seeds as a part of this. Down at the bottom, I would have grains. Certain grains, as I mentioned, are kind of cold super foods because they are closer to the fat and protein profile of seeds. All grains are seeds but we are just talking about the amount of nutrition inside.

This ranking is nonsense though. You need all of it. You need everything from this group. You don’t need everything from this group all the time. This I would completely agree with. In fact, I like seasonal eating. I am just now starting to get the urge for a little more salt. I mentioned that about my dinner last night. I know what this is. It’s that we are having the first touch of fall right now. The amount of light every day is starting to head away, these cool days yesterday and today are a part of this. Even Lena mentioned that it’s getting time to close up the season agriculturally.

What this means is that it becomes part of our DNA to have preserved food in the winter. Our bodies are remarkable things in how they adapt. I am extremely happy with grains and beans in the winter time as long as I have some cabbage to go along with them. I not only can live on this combination, I do live on it. And of course seeds and dry fruit for snacks.

I am not saying that this is the diet of the planet but I am saying it’s probably the most natural diet for the northern climbs of the northern hemisphere. You might call this a white vegan diet. I’ve seen plenty of videos from people in Australia or Indonesia or more southerly and wet places where the fruit grows year-round and they have access to different types of food. I’m not competing and I’m not jealous. I say good for them. I’m just saying what works at latitude 52. That is specifically latitude 52 without meat or eggs.

Is this a limited diet? I don’t really think so. If I do well and I can stave off global warming for at least a few more years, I will certainly have enough diversity of fruit lying around to keep me happy. Drying and saving grapes will be part of my yearly chore. Grapes and fruit and apples. We have a bunch of sunflowers growing for seeds and though I don’t really anticipate a massive harvest of beans, we will have a lot more next year, I think it’s possible to substantially contribute to self-sufficiency here without harming animals. I don’t think I can do 100% on this parcel but I think even without straying too far from traditional foods, I think it’s possible to have quite a bit of food lying around. I’ll be better next year.

Anyway, the floors are nice and clean. My beans are cooling from their first cooking. I’ll have them for lunch which will be my first meal in a couple of hours. I have some cleaning to do around the house. Mostly in the kitchen but also in the warm room. But after that, I’ll be good for the day. Another easy day today.

One more thought about veganism and quality of life.

Are vegans less aggressive?

More specifically, male vegans and vegetarians reported significantly lower anxiety scores than did male omnivores, and female vegans reported significantly lower stress scores than did female omnivores. Depression levels were similar across all groups.

I’m going to go with the answer yes but this blurb came from a subsidiary question called are vegans calmer.

Here’s another from the search:

They’ve found some intriguing and consistent differences between meat eaters and vegetarians. For example, meat eaters tend to be more authoritarian in general, believing that it is acceptable to be aggressive and controlling with subordinates.

And another, this one from a question about why meat eaters are so defensive:

Some evidence suggests meat-eaters may consider vegetarianism an implicit moral reproach, and respond defensively to vegetarian ideas. This is because people tend to regard themselves as morally good and dislike those who they regard as threatening their moral sense of self.

Here’s another one that I like quite a bit:

Are vegans mentally disturbed?

That is, unlike the picture Dana sought to paint in the early 20th century, Vegetarianism and Veganism are not pathological or any form of mental disorders, they are not a cause for mental disorders nor characteristic of people with depression or mood disorders. They are moral choices.

I would say moral, ethical and health. I would also put in globally helpful to this mix but yeah, I like that one quite a bit. Here’s another one that I also like and agree with quite a bit:

Are vegans nicer people?

The new study of more than 11,000 Americans found that not only are vegans more likely to be and stay happy, but happier individuals are more likely to go vegan. Vegans are happier than meat-eaters and more accepted than what’s commonly believed, according to a new study by organization Tracking Happiness.

And I guess I can put one more in here just because I feel like I’m taking batting practice right now and hitting nothing but homers:

Why do people get so angry about vegans?

One possible reason for the hatred comes from being uncomfortable with the truth and the perceived cruelty, as it brings with it a fear of judgement from vegans upon meat-eaters, as found by neuroscientist Dr Dean Burnett.

Yeah, the Revelation that meat is murder or that in reality, there is almost zero difference between eating animals and eating people is a bit much for people to take. Like I have been saying all along, you can’t reason with alcoholics and you can’t take people’s drugs away without making them very, very upset.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m making a lot of sense. Let’s hope this good influence stuff starts spreading a bit more. We could use a bit more happy, friendly, less aggressive and emotionally and physically healthier people in the world. A little less bloodshed couldn’t hurt. A little less bloodshed, a little less cancer, a little less diabetes and probably a slightly different class of neighbors and I would say we would be on the correct track.

***

Here is a general YouTube search for “veganism and global warming”.

And here is the same search for the whole internet: veganism and global warming

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749

https://earth.stanford.edu/news/could-going-vegan-help-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions#gs.8ultui

https://www.downtoearth.org/environment/global-warming/vegetarianism-cure-global-warming

The basic principles involved are that the meat industry is not only providing food that is not healthy for human consumption, the basic agricultural practices both use too much land and cause too much damage to the land that they use. This is not only the meat farms themselves but the amount of grain that is specifically grown for animal agriculture and the effects of all of that monopropping and chemical enhancement.

Any arguments that you read in favor of meat are almost unilaterally economically oriented. The industry does not wish to go out of business. But the point is that we should not be speaking about economics but ecology and human health and the future of our planet. It’s not just that we should argue about our personal choices or our right to do what we want, this is an argument directly from meat propaganda. The argument is whether or not we can eat healthy, delicious foods without causing harm to our environment. Or to say this another way, can we eat in a more intelligent, kinder and healthier manner which would be good for ourselves as well as the world as a whole? This is probably at the soul of everything I’m doing right now. It is really all I care about.

Why am I so inspired to throw up some links and try to move people even one more time? The answer is simple enough. I am almost out of water.

In the springtime, I measured my groundwater as being 140 cm below the surface. If you go back and check my writing, you will see that I used a number of 180 cm. My well is exactly 40 cm from the surface. I’m just using the ground level this time.

I also pointed out that there are stains on the concrete rings of my well. The well is 50 something years old and the stains are about a meter higher than the spring water level. This means that at some point in history, groundwater was only about 40 cm below the surface. This was a very wet region. It is a swampy region and we have a bog exactly a few hundred meters from this property. This has been the normal water level forever or at least whatever forever we can consider reasonable.

I just went to bring water for the house and found that I could not get a full bucket of water. This is a 10 L bucket of water and I could not get more than about eight or eight and a half liters of water into it. It just bottomed out.

Measuring the water right now, I see that it is at 205 cm. A full 2 L below the surface and about a meter and a half lower than what is normal or what is supposed to be normal for this region. Would you like to know why you cannot grow fruit trees here? Would you like to know why the forest is so dry? Is it too difficult to understand that these changes have taken place only within the last decade and a half or, in about as much time as it took for Russia to become powerful because of the oil business.

All I am saying is give Peace a chance. All I am saying is that what we are doing is not the only way to do things. All I’m saying is that there is a kinder way that might actually leave a place to live for our children and grandchildren. That’s all I’m saying.

***

This week’s torah study is Va’etchanan (וָֽאֶתְחַנַּ֖ן). The word meaning something like “I begged or asked the Lord earnestly” and is a first person quote from Moses.  

I will be honest with you here in that the change in pronouns took a minute or so to sink in. Last week, I also missed that there was a change in authorship between the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy. Apparently Moses is dead and we are listening to Joshua tell the story of the Israelites beginning to enter the promised Land.

I did a little bit of studying looking for the place where Moses actually passes. It seems as though it was somewhere towards the end of the book of numbers but there is no specific location. Only that the language suddenly turns a bit and now we have a third person’s perspective rather than Moses speaking about himself and his decisions. So here at the end of their time in the desert, Joshua is either taking dictation as Moses is fading or he is busy making his report. In any case, Moses is gone or is nearly gone and we are listening to the recollections of Joshua.

On a personal note, this change has a personal reference for me. When my father died, I had a relative with power of attorney. There were several ways for him to handle his job but what he did was simply say that he was in power, he could do whatever he wanted, laws or even my father’s wishes no longer applied (he is a Florida conservative which pretty much explains everything) and he was going to do whatever he wanted.

I am a communist you know. I believe that we are all supposed to get along together and I am firmly a believer that no good can come of capitalism or inheriting power that you have not yourself earned. This is true for power and this is true for respect. People who take over from powerful people without ever having built anything for themselves are almost universally people I wish no contact with. I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule but there’s a big difference between people who earn their place for themselves and those who get handed it through advantage or nepotism. Sorry, there is just too much room for corruption in this world and we already have too much corruption.

Anyway, the first portion has Joshua telling us that Moses asked emphatically to be allowed to cross into the promised Land but was flatly turned down. Hence, it was now Joshua’s show.

The second portion is a very long speech about the history of why the Lord is powerful and everything that he has done. This seems basically to be Moses saying these things. Basically, he is admonishing all the children of Israel through Joshua to be good people.

In the third portion, they laid out the geography of their new settlement, making sure that there was a place of sanctuary where people who transgress had an opportunity to go.

In the 4th portion, Moses gives a bit of a sermon reminding people to follow his commandments. This is specifically the ten commandments though of course we are kind of iffy and hypocritical about killing. Definitely though, you need a day off. That is always made exceptionally clear. 

The sermon continues on in the 5th portion and in the 6th, we begin with what is known as the shema (שְׁמַ֖ע): 

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one.

(שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהֹוָ֥ה | אֶחָֽד)

What does “the lord is one” mean?

This is a very unsatisfying search because you don’t really get any specific ideas about what the true meaning of the word echod (אֶחָֽד) means. Universally in English this is said as the word one as is written above and is also seen as relating to the word alone.

However, as I dove a little bit deeper into this search, I found other references to this word in the Bible that tend to mean things like the first day or the only day.

Taking just this bit of information, I want to add in something that is very common in the Russian language. When a Russian person talks about a problem or a situation with multiple facets, they will usually say with great emphasis that something comes first. This means it is the most important thing. In fact they will usually say it as its own sentence, “This is the first thing!”.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the true meaning of this word is that God comes first. This is the real admonishment. It is not really that there is only one God, that is a given in monotheism (and also pretty much adds hypocrisy to the idea of Jesus, no offense) but instead should mean that God comes first. One should never forget that God comes first.

I personally am very much okay with this because it also works very well with my own view of the truth of religion. 

If God equals nature and nature equals God, God/nature comes first in all things. Should we remember this as a great truth, we will probably be around as a species for quite some time as will all of our naturally existing friends and relatives. 

“And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.”  Deuteronomy 6-5

Amen.

The prayer goes on for a while and then in the 7th part, there is a warning that people often forget and go sideways on you. People are not very dependable. They get selfish and make mistakes and forget the basics all the time. It is best to be wary, keep your eyes open, stay to the straight and narrow and do your best to keep mistakes to a minimum.

***

Heart health? I vote yes…

Time to let the dairy go. Time to let the meat go. Time to let cigarettes go. I mean, it is time to let it go. 

***

It’s 6:30 and I’m sitting in the office eating Cherry plums. The temperature outside is literally perfect. The day has been cloudy and cool all day. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any more rain but they’re also hasn’t been any oppressive direct sunshine. All of this is very positive.

The land inspector showed up a bit unannounced today and brought her 360 camera out to navigate the realities of my land parcel. There are some arguments that don’t amount to a whole lot. The previous owner allowed the forest to encroach on the property when she lived here and at some point, some of it got reclaimed by the forest service. 

When I first found this property and started the paperwork to acquire it, I was told that I had the potential to purchase more land. I was extremely into that but then it was explained to me that the land I could acquire was only that land that had been taken back by the forest service. They wanted a little bit too much bureaucratic money for that so I didn’t bother. It doesn’t really make much of a difference. It’s just wild forest and nobody does anything in there but me.

At the end of our meeting, the inspector told me that this law is going to change next year. After January 1st, I can have a lot more land back there if I want it. To me, as a small time conservationist, I can at least make sure that nobody bothers the trees directly around me. The probable reality of this however means that they are just selling off Forest land now to whoever wants it. We all know what that means.

On the other side of the coin, with the groundwater as low as it is, they are probably making decisions like if we don’t cut it down and turn it into firewood it’s just going to burn all by itself. We might as well make our profits before the world ends. You can see the beauty and that kind of philosophy, can’t you?

All of this is just conjecture though. The inspector said that she would need to come back yet again. This last visit would be with the paperwork and with a desire to show me exactly where my property is. I got argumentative as I always do. None of my surrounding neighbors gives a damn about the forest land or does anything with it. As far as I know, I’m the only one who even goes for walks out there. Wherever the actual property line comes to is not very important to me at all. The only thing that is important is that people catch a clue about the damage we are doing to the world as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the inspector was not someone to talk to about that idea.

After they left, Lana showed up again to bring me more zucchini. I don’t know how many times I have to tell the woman to stop bringing me food. I have too much to eat as it is and I don’t really want responsibility for any more. I have my own zucchini and all of this addition just spoils it for me. I don’t know what the point of growing my own food is if I’m just going to have women bring me more when I don’t want it. I understand she’s trying to be nice but I really wish she would just leave me alone as far as food is concerned.

Other than that, it was a pretty boring day. I ate really well around lunch time and made a feast out of those beings. I haven’t even thought about eating food again since then. And no, there has been no massive gas attack from having eaten an abundance of beans. Either I cook them correctly or I’m just used to it. Who knows, maybe this fruit I’m eating right now will make a difference to me. I’m sure I’ll let you know.

But basically this brings us to the end of another day, the fifth day of this week, and sets me up for my Friday. I would say I’m in pretty good shape compared to normally. All of my chores have been taken care of, what we have growing is doing its thing and doing well. I will go out and water tomorrow morning if we don’t get any rain overnight and after that, about the only thing I will have to worry about is doing some cooking. I’m thinking of making bean burgers tomorrow. I’ll either steam them or bake them. I don’t have any cooking oil and do not have any desire to buy any. You can watch the above video for my reasoning.

I got this picture from my daughter today. She says she put it together by using the neural net to create the artwork. I kind of like it and even took the trouble to throw it up on Instagram. Not so many likes.

I don’t really have the relationship I want with her but it’s completely understandable about what kind of relationship we have. I know how she was raised and what ideas were jammed into her head. I know the way she thinks and I know the things she believes are important. I will be honest that I feel bad about the situation. I do not feel bad for any failures I may have made. I just feel bad about the restrictions and pressures that have been put on her and the bullshit that has been stuck into her head. It’s all kind of a shame really.

She is on paper something. She has been a good student and has some musical skills. Anybody would be proud I’m sure. It’s not exactly what I wanted for her. It’s much, much different from what I wanted for her.

But then again, I wanted something different for all of my students. All of the young people that I worked with over the years, I wanted all of them to have a wider life with a bit more Independence. I wanted them to choose professions that they loved rather than making their choices for money and that they choose the people in their life for similar reasons. It is a bit of a shame when people are told that there is only one way. It is even more of a shame when these words are cancerous with corruption. I just wanted better.